Avery Fisher Hall
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Fabio Luisi, conductor
Eroica Trio:
Erika Nickrenz, piano
Susie Park, violin
Sara Sant’Ambrogio, cello
Beethoven Triple Concerto in C major
Brahms Symphony no. 2 in D major

 

At last, a chance to freshen up my vocabulary. I was really worried that I was running out of superlatives, but this time, I feel safe: not many needed.

The Wiener Symphoniker are not the Wiener Philharmoniker, I suppose we all agree. But they are, nevertheless, an extremely honorable group and have been led by great conductors. Wilhelm Fürtwängler, Herbert von Karajan, Joseph Krips, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Georges Prêtre, Carlo Maria Giulini, Gennady Rozhedventsky and now Fabio Luisi, to name a few – quite a constellation. But the orchestra itself, as far as I know, never truly reached stellar heights, always remaining a solid, but maybe slightly stolid, group.

Still, when they launched into the opening bars of the Beethoven, I had high hopes. The first pianissimo chords were stunning. The tone was beautiful, the dynamics perfect – not a rumble, as can often happen, but a well- rounded pianissimo followed by a glorious sforzando, an all-together satisfying introduction. But then the cello entered, and the violin, and the piano and….oh, well.

The soloists call themselves the Eroica Trio. When they preceded Luisi onto the stage, I was reminded of a rather stale joke in a classical music magazine about somebody referring to Beethoven’s Third Symphony as the Erotica – a name perfectly suited to the trio I was now looking at (not yet hearing). Three lovely young girls clad in different shapes of silver, hair as silky as the strings on their instruments, all smiles and gorgeous poses. That would have been just dandy if they could play.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. I don’t know where all the wonderful praise I read in the Playbill came from, but it was hard to believe that they were nominated for Grammys and won prizes and record for a prestigious label. The only half-appropriate comment in the programme notes was about their “sensual elegance”, at least as far as sensual is concerned.

This performance was a technical and stylistic disaster. Of the three musicians, only the pianist managed to play in tune. The cellist and the violinist insisted on deviating from the correct pitch whenever they ran into more demanding passages or higher notes. Furthermore, it was an altogether slippery interpretation, glissandi galore. The prestissimo passages were downright scary, as the two string players proceded as if they intended to saw their instruments in two and the piano was ruthlessly pounded upon. Dynamics were painfully obvious. This was not the Beethoven Triple I wanted to hear (I am now listening to Barenboim, Ma and Perlman, with the Berlin Philharmonic – all right, unfair competition), and I suspect that the orchestra and conductor were not thrilled either. I cannot resist passing on a comment made the following day by one of my fellow chamber music players, a very amiable violinist, who said : ” The Erotica trio really didn’t turn me on…”

The Brahms was uneven, at times beautiful, at times rather messy, but mainly very square. Luisi is definitely an excellent and precise conductor, but was not really inspired. I am not yet familiar with his work, and look forward to seeing and hearing more of him at the Met. In any case, it seems that not only the audience, but also the Vienna Symphony and Fabio Luisi were especially relieved to get rid of the trio.